DC Comics is owned by Warner Brothers. In what is either a move to make Superman more globally appealing leading up to his upcoming film, or a reflection of the globalist mentality in the DC corporate offices, it was revealed yesterday in Action Comics 900 that Superman is renouncing his American Citizenship.

Which is a huge mistake in many ways, but a sad reflection of our times.

What wannabe-elitists fail to understand is what the “American Way” Superman stood for is all about. Superman was created in the late 1930s by two Jewish teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. They created Superman at a time when Nazis were rising to power and taking over Europe. When communists had taken over Russia. Superman stood for freedom and justice and fought for the allies during the war because, not only were his two creators patriotic, they understood the threat to freedom that existed out there. Superman, like America, was fighting for the people of the world. He was a bringer of justice and peace at a time when organized crime was rampant in America, when fascists where threatening executing innocents in death camps and conquering the globe.

Superman was unique, the last survivor of the planet Krypton, just as America was unique in the world, a nation founded on the principal of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, a constitution with limited government that guarantees the rights of the individual. It stood in stark contrast to the rest of the world, which was mired in despotic regimes, kleptocratic states, not unlike today.

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The “Restoring Sanity and/or Fear” Rally was a couple hours of torture that Human Rights Watch would be protesting if it were played to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. It was attended by a crowd of mostly pasty-faced hipsters which makes you wonder if the NAACP will start accusing Comedy Central of being racist. It was as diverse as the roster at MSNBC. And half as funny.

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You can tell how spellbound the audience was in the clip. They swayed back and forth like extras in the Walking Dead show that airs on AMC Sunday.

Aside from the smug sanctimony oozing from these alleged comedians, this tuneless anthem can’t decide if it’s pro or anti-American. But it stands as a good example of the kind of “entertainment” what preceded it. An attempt to extol the virtues of big government sandwiched between performances by geriatric pop stars and lame humor bits that sucked harder than a million vacuum cleaners.

How many people showed up? Hard to tell from the crowd shots because they wouldn’t allow filming except from approved camera people (how Soviet!). But this says it all.

Comedy Central’s park permit puts the crowd estimate at 60,000.

Here’s an aerial photo. (more…)

After the moribund Carter years, the age of Reagan issued in a new era of American confidence. And with that confidence came a wave of films full of male bravado after a decade of paranoid, navel gazing films with negative endings.

Carter capped off the sad decade of the 70s, where America bailed on Vietnam, a president resigned in shame and Carter let Iran fall into Islamo-Fascist hands and then failed to rescue our hostages, which Iran humiliated before the world. His economy was as terrible as this one. And the Democrats of his day echoed the same defeatist sentiments of this period, claiming people better get used to high unemployment and an moribund economy because it’s here to stay. American cities were decaying. The Big Apple was said to be rotting and it’s best days were over.

The 70’s movies, echoed the sentiments of many film makers of that era, which showed a government that was corrupt and predatory. America was seen as a hopeless, crime ridden nation where the little guy had to fight corruption at every turn. Hollywood cranked out revenge films, crime films, conspiracy films. Many of them had an unhappy ending. The few exceptions, like Star Wars were a huge hit, but they were an exception to the rule. (more…)

HBO isn’t often accused of being a great source of patriotic material, but their 2008 mini-series John Adams should required viewing. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a great one to rent.

It deals with the first fifty years of the United States and the life of our second President. John Adams, played with his usual panache by Paul Giamatti, wasn’t the most loved, best looking or even heroic of our founders. But he was a brilliant man and an important part of the forging of this nation and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

Based on David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning book and starring a host of great actors like Giamatti, Laura Linney, David Morse, Tom Wilkinson, Danny Huston, it shows is how fragile the nation was in its infancy, the forces that drove the founders to revolt against the English crown, the politics that threatened to tear the country apart afterward, how the country was treated by the Europeans then. It’s very eye opening.

John Adams was lawyer who believed in the rule of law. He served two terms as George Washington’s vice president and one as president. He had to make some tough decisions in his one term, which meant he was vilified in his time, much like the last president. John lived to a ripe old age and saw a lot of changes come to this land. He even lived to see his son John Quincy become president. (more…)

DC Comics has announced a new look and origin for Wonder Woman. They’re blaming it on the gods.

Once again DC shows it doesn’t know what to do with one of its most iconic characters. The problem with Wonder Woman isn’t her costume. It never was. But leave it to the suits to think a PC reboot is going to solve the problems that have plagued this character since her inception.

DC describes the new outfit as “a Wonder Woman look designed for the 21st century” that will allow Diana “to be taken seriously as a warrior, in partial answer to the many female fans over the years who’ve asked, ‘how does she fight in that thing without all her parts falling out?’ …The bracelets are still there, but made more colorful, tied on the inside and over the hand, with a script W on each of them that form WW when she holds them side by side… and if you get hit by one of them, it leaves a W mark. This is a Wonder Woman who signs her work.”

The problem with Wonder Woman isn’t her look. It’s her personality. She has never been a warm, appealing character. She comes from an island populated only by immortal Amazons who hate men. And men aren’t allowed to set foot on the island. This island of super-women send her to “the man’s world” where she brings the baggage of this sexist worldview.

See, here is problem #1. Most comics readers are male. So you start off telling them their gender sucks. Great sales pitch.

Let’s deal with some reality for a second. I know the PC crowd and leftists in general love the concept of “protected classes” and the idea that, say, women could do things better than men if they had the chance. But aside from the chauvinistic mentality of this argument it ignores a simple axiom. Women are human beings. Human beings are flawed creatures. (more…)

Not since Walt Disney created a film studio based mostly on animation has a film company had such a string of successful family films. In fact, Pixar has had more successes in its run than Disney did in its early years. Lucky for Disney, they distribute Pixar.

Many in Hollywood may be scratching their heads trying to understand why this company has had so many winners. But the secret ingredients are the very things that Hollywood often forgets are the most important elements to any movie. It’s like baking a cake without eggs, flour or sugar. It can be done, but good luck with that.

Let’s review the simple ingredients that makes the Pixar cakes so delicious.

1. Story Fundamentals: Every story is an argument. It should have a point. The point should be made strongly and you should either learn from it or come away with more understanding than you had going in. A story is really there to put things in some kind of perspective. A protagonist is given a set of problems they have to solve in order to achieve the thing they desire. In overcoming those problems they learn about themselves and grow as a person in some way. (more…)

The Los Angeles Times has a sordid history of race baiting in its effort to pump up its progressive bonafides, despite a historic lack of diversity in their own staff. Their latest diatribe is a recent attack on Hollywood for “whitewashing” the Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender. They were quickly followed in lock step by the Huffington Post, publishing an AP article that seemed to be cribbed from the Times. And then the industry blog The Wrap took things a step further by calling this a “White Summer” for the “lack of diversity” in Hollywood films this season. Hear that Eddie Murphy, Jackie Chan, Common, Jaden Smith, Queen Latifah? You don’t have any movies this summer. Uh, wait.

Here’s the crux of their discontent. Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender have male leads played by white actors; Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia and Noah Ringer as Aang in ‘The Last Airbender. So, like the predictable hacks they are, they jumped on the racism argument. Dancing around the “R” word by reciting the industry’s history of casting white actors in non-white roles.

Yes, that did happen a lot in the past, and it does happen on occasion now. But here’s where the stupidity starts. Persians, aka Iranians, are ethnically white. In fact, most people of Eurasian stock are considered ethnically white. Casting a white actor as a Persian is hardly a racially insensitive move. And the Last Airbender is directed by Indian-American M. Night Shyamalan, who took exception to the criticisms his movie has gotten on this subject. (more…)

When I heard they were making a film of Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane, I wasn’t sure I’d be happy about it. Howard was the creator of Conan the Barbarian; he is one of the handful of writers like JRR Tolkien and Edgar Rice Burroughs who helped make fantasy fiction popular and defined it for generations. As a teenager, Howard was one of my favorite writers. His stories had a dark, powerful energy that’s largely unmatched. Solomon Kane was my favorite of his characters, a puritan avenger in early America fighting all kinds of supernatural monsters and demons with a vengeance. He’s a very original character and a serious bad ass. Howard’s heroes are hardcore, macho to the Nth degree. They are the alpha male incarnate. No one has handled Robert E Howard well, in my opinion. Most comics failed to do him justice (except maybe some artists). I hated the Conan and Red Sonia movies. So I was wary of any new film effort.

But then I saw this trailer and my mood changed.

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This is not the lame rip off that Van Helsing was, this is a faithful adaption of Howard with no tongue-in-cheek, campy scenes. Here’s a hero who’s fighting evil in the name of God, something you don’t see much anymore. And he’s not afraid of taking on whatever comes his way, no matter how terrifying it may be. He’s fierce and unwavering and even demons from hell better think twice about pissing him off. My kind of character.

I saw the film and I can tell you that it’s way better than you’d expect. Excellent music, effects, acting. A top notch supporting cast which includes Max Von Sydow and Pete Postlethwaite, but even better, a great leading man in the title role, James Purefoy. Purefoy rocked Rome as Marc Antony and is perfect here. Purefoy does Howard’s character right. (more…)

Censorship must die!

The Treme (pronounced treh-MAY) is one of New Orleans oldest and traditionally black neighborhoods. It is also the home of some of its musical legends. The area was one of those hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. HBO’s new series explores the lives of some of its residents in the weeks following the disaster. But thankfully, it isn’t an angry polemic so much as a celebration of one of America’s more colorful cities.

(Warning: language)

The Wire producer/creator David Simon and Eric Overmyer has brought together an eclectic cast including John Goodman and the ever zany Steve Zahn, to create an ode to the Big Easy and its citizens, while taking a few opportunities to show how the government often fails the citizens. Simon, who co-created one of the best crime shows ever, The Wire, is a rare commodity in Hollywood. He’s not only a great writer, he’s a liberal who is critical of big government. Simon is a former journalist who covered the mean streets of Baltimore in his youth and developed a seasoned cynicism when looking at the big picture. His stories deal with people on all levels of society trying to operate in a dysfunctional landscape.

Where the Wire tackled Baltimore, Treme deals with New Orleans. Famous for great music, food, culture as well as poverty, corruption and crime. While the show is, in many ways, a love letter to the town, it is also realistic portrait. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are spared when politics rears its ugly head, but Simon is less interested in politics than the people whose lives are effected by it. (more…)

Hollywood’s favorite examples of how “evil” conservatives are, and how “wrong” the 1950s were, is the Blacklist and the McCarthy hearings, even though they were unrelated. It’s a popular theme in many films and TV shows that the Red Scare was a bad, bad thing. The act of making communists, who wanted to destroy and subvert our way of life, out to be villains, has been maligned and pilloried for years. Yet these events that America is supposed to be ashamed of only lasted a few years and was the work of a mere handful of people. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me turn your attention to a worse case of rampant bigotry, phobia and persecution. I am referring of course to the New Red Scare…  Hollywood’s rampant hate mongering of the Red States and Middle America.

You want cliched stereotypes? You want blacklists? You want cruel and vicious hate speech? You want people revealing their dark hearts for all to see? You want to see fanatics spewing bile like possessed, head spinning, profanity spouting Linda Blair imitators? Well, step night up! It’s almost a daily occurrence in Tinseltown. Check out the celebrity rags and blogs. In the allegedly “tolerant” and “inclusive” City of Angeles it’s perfectly PC to show your hatred for anyone who doesn’t toe the leftist line. Yes, even people who are apolitical or libertarian who happen to merely dissent from the progressive hive mind, they too are judged!

Forget the screeching TV evangelists calling people sinners; they have nothing on the judgement that flows like a river of sewer waste from Tinsel Town. Hollywood’s TV and films have been bashing on average Americans going back to Green Acres. Green Acres was the way Hollywood saw the flyover states. A bunch of ignorant, inbred hicks with no electricity or indoor plumbing. Something to be mocked to canned laughter. Times have changed, but only for the worse. (more…)

From a short story by crime legend Elmore Leonard comes Justified, a new FX drama written and produced by showrunner Graham Yost,  best known as the writer of the 1994 action movie Speed. Starring Deadwood alum Timothy Olyphant, Justified takes us to the wilds of modern day Kentucky and follows the exploits of Olyphant’s character, Marshall Raylan Givens, who is like a throwback  to an old Western sherriff. He’s a no nonsense straight shooter who tries reason in tough situations, but is quick with a draw when talk won’t cut it.

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The title of the show stems from a shooting in the first episode where Marshall Givens smoked a criminal in Miami who had done him wrong. The shooting was deemed “justified”, but it gets Raylan reassigned to his home state of Kentucky where he becomes reacquainted with old friends, foes and kin. The state seems very lush and beautiful on the show, full of old towns and houses, but also full of ornery natives or the occasional Yankee who’s living there in exile and dreaming of “civilization.”

Justified has a feel that plays very true to Elmore Leonard’s style which usually involves introducing some quirky losers and a hero of some kind, and then throws them into a situation involving money that they all end up fighting over. Having read all of his books, the series makes me feel like I am watching one of his stories come to life. (more…)

In the late 1960s, early 70s, Hollywood was in a lot worse shape than it is now. The studio system was on its last legs. Major corporations were buying up the studios and the execs didn’t know how to run them. But the town was about to undergo a huge revival. But that was still a few years ahead. In the early 70s, things were bleak.

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Over at Paramount, which was owned by the oil company Gulf and Western, former actor turned producer Robert Evans was given the job of running the place. Evans cut costs dramatically and ran a tight ship with very few managers. He’d inherited some bloated films that lost the studio money. The Gulf and Western Board was meeting to decide if they were going to let Paramount keep the lights on. Evans knew he had to do something to convince them that his movies were going to save the studio. So he got with a friend and made a film for the board (see above), hoping it would turn his fortunes around.

Here’s how Evans Evans puts it: (more…)

Since when can you be sued for using a font? The Vandals, an L.A. based punk band, learned the answer to this question when they parodied Variety’s iconic logo for their 2004 album “Hollywood Potato Chip.” The word Variety, or a newspaper image was nowhere to be found. The Vandals weren’t mocking Variety in any way. The album cover merely used a font similar to Variety’s logo, as an example of Hollywood-ism. Perhaps if they had used the Hollywood sign’s Helvetica font instead, they might have got away with it. But Variety sent them a cease-and-desist letter claiming trademark infringement.

At their own expense, the Vandals had the cover replaced with one that didn’t use the offending font. Everything was hunky-dory until March 24th when the Vandals were hit with a lawsuit filed in the Delaware courts. According to The Wrap, Henry Horbaczewski, counsel for Variety’s owner said: “We sued them, and they accepted a settlement agreement in which they promised to stop misusing our mark, because we wanted to stop the misuse, not their money. They then ignored their agreement.”

Here’s the problem, the Vandals changed the art. But copies of the old cover art are floating around somewhere on the net, which is nigh impossible to redact. In fact, the very article I linked to shows the old and new covers. Variety isn’t willing to reveal where this infringement took place. So this is essentially a nuisance/intimidation suit, the kind meant to squeeze money from some soft targets who can ill afford an extensive legal battle that they would probably win. Since lawsuits are usually unpredictable, most people settle. Which is something sue happy sharks have known for years. That’s why there are so many frivolous lawsuits in the land. Usually it’s individuals going after companies for some coin. (more…)

Actor Comedian Bob Golub created the documentary Dodo, about his father Donald and family that feels at times like a true life Scorcese movie. All the people in the film seem ripped from the cutting room floor of Raging Bull or Goodfellas, with all the pathos, angst and drama. But it’s not fiction. It’s a collection of edited home movies and interviews with Golub’s kin. The result is an interesting and often moving trip through memory lane.

The rough and tumble Golub family grew up poor in the small town of Sharon, Pennsylvania. Donald was a self-employed working man. The economy in the town was bad enough. Donald, aka “Dodo,” drummed up business by schmoozing in bars when he wasn’t getting hammered or beating on other people who got on his nerves. Dodo was a local legend in his time. His impact on his kids was immense.

Born into a working class Polish-American family, Donald was an athletic kid who had to go to work fast. The options in Sharon were limited. He decided to go into roofing instead of a factory job. Those were dying off even back then. But being a roofer in the North East is a tough job, especially in the winter. Donald was up to the task, but there were a lot of downtimes and he spent them at the bar “trying to get work.” (more…)

Although he probably didn’t mean to say this, director Godfrey Reggio’s excellent 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi has a sequence that beautifully illustrates the failure of large socialized programs vs free market capitalism. This illustration reveals why if government spending often results in poor services and bankrupt results over time.

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Here’s the clip. We start with scenes of New York majesty followed by a street slum, followed by rows of project apartment buildings as urban blight. Then, at the end, we’re shown gleaming glass towers which are the product of free market capitalism. The project buildings were products of President Johnson’s war on poverty which spent billions and did exactly what you’d expect billions of tax dollars thrown at an abstract problem like poverty would do. Those apartment buildings would have gone up in the 60s. The film was shot around 1979. Less than 20 years. Think on that when you watch the clip above.

That’s government in action right there. Some of those buildings were barely 20 years old, if that. And they want to take over 1/6th of our economy, the health care business, and manage it the way they do everything else. You know, as effectively as Medicare, Social Security, The Post Office, Amtrak which are all about to go under. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae? Failing badly. Hey, why not just show the government debt while we’re at it to see how well they run things. They’ve created trillions in debt based on promises they made. Promises made by politicians that you and your descendants would be footing these bills. They didn’t ask for your consent. Just as they are ignoring the public’s will with the health care bills. (more…)

If cable is the place where the best shows get made, Damages is the proof. It’s third season started with a bang and continues to surprise its viewers with tightly written, clever stories acted by some of the best talent out there.

Glenn Close stars as Patty Hewes, a high-powered trial lawyer who takes on big corporations for massive damages. For the first couple seasons you couldn’t tell if she was a villain or a hero. Patty’s a legal shark and a world class poker player without the cards. Her manipulations and schemes are Machiavellian to the extreme, which is why Patty is at the top of her game.

In season one she hires Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), a young attorney out to make a name for herself by working with a top law firm. Her relationship with Patty is reminiscent at first of the John Grisham classic The Firm. What seems like a plum job soon becomes dangerous and you can’t tell if Patty’s out to murder her or it’s one of the defendants they’re trying to bring down.

Patty’s loyal lieutenant is Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan). Shayes gets things done for Patty but even he finds tackling the biggest game in town can put your life at risk. (more…)

A funny thing happened on the way to a global conspiracy. Reality killed it. Funny how that happens.

Not long ago people like Al Gore were jetting around the globe taking in vast speaking fees, winning awards, telling everyone that they must give up the things they enjoy to save the planet. These doomsayers all told us we were stupid if we doubted them. They knew better, you see. These people claimed all “real” scientists agreed that mankind was destroying the planet with global warming. That we humans were at fault and the only way to save ourselves is bow down to a world government, pay lots of taxes and give up our cars, our electricity, air travel, light bulbs, blah blah blah.

There was a vast left wing conspiracy in other words. One designed to scare people into giving more power and wealth to statist bureaucrats who were employing the oldest trick in the book. Using fear and guilt to manufacture consent.

They began by locking down major institutions like NASA and Britain’s Climate Research Unit (CRU). Then they got the media on board, the science magazines, the cable networks. They started churning out articles and documentaries supporting the global warming meme. Millions were spent selling the idea, because many of these groups knew that fear, like sex, sells. There are two main motivations that human beings have. The desire to have something and the fear of losing something. They used both to pitch the notion that we could create a “green utopia” by changing the way we did things, and in doing so we would prevent the end of the world. Who doesn’t want to be a hero? Who doesn’t love the environment? How can you argue with that? (more…)

When AMC decided to produce original programming, their first series, Mad Men, was a critical home run. It was a show set in a classic time, and AMC, which used to stand for American Movie Classics was a perfectly fine place to run it. But their second show had the strange title Breaking Bad. It was a “dramedy” set in present day, in the dusty town of Kingman, Arizona. I remember thinking at the time, so much for the classic feel. I was wrong.

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Breaking Bad is the best crime show currently airing on television. It starts with an original premise. Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, is a low paid high school chemistry teacher in a dead end job. He has a handicapped son (RJ Mitte) and a wife (Anna Gunn) who doesn’t work. They’re barely making ends meet. And then he gets a bomb dropped on him. He’s diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Walter’s given less than a year to live.

Looking at his options and his debts, Walter realizes that he will leave his wife and son with nothing. His wife will have to go back to work, which she hasn’t done in years. His son, who has cerebral palsy, will not have much help in life. He’s in high school, but there is no money to send him off to college. (more…)

if you like comics and super-hero movies you can’t go wrong with DC’s latest animated film, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. It’s a terrific translation of classic comics stories to film with a contemporary flavor.

Set during the early days of the League when they’re constructing their space station (pre-Justice League Unlimited). For the sake of this discussion, they live on Earth One. Meanwhile, on a parallel earth (known as Earth Three in the comics) there is another Justice League that’s the opposite of the one on JLA’s World. In this world, the villains are the heroes and visa-versa. Superman is a criminal thug named Ultraman. He runs a mob called the Crime Syndicate which is made up of evil versions of the Justice League. But the Justice League of that world is run by Lex Luthor and is composed of good versions of the villains in Earth One.

The good Lex Luthor has just stolen something from the Crime Syndicate. He escapes to Earth One using a device that allows him to travel between quantum realities. He needs the Justice League’s help in defeating the Crime Syndicate which has killed all the remaining heroes on his world. The Justice League questions why they should try to save a world other than Earth when they have so many problems to deal with here. But they know they can’t refuse.

Lots of fun ensues. (more…)